Wild Shape, Spirit Companions, and Flight

[JPL]

Tell me if this is correct . . .

Neither wild shaped druids nor spirit companions gain any special movement abilities as a result of the form they take.

So my swarm druid who turns into a swarm of bees tries to fly over a pit . . . and he falls.

My eagle spirit companion might be visualized as "hovering" five feet above the ground or so, but he's not "soaring" anywhere.

Is this correct? If so, I can appreciate that from a game balance standpoint, but for those particular examples . . . just seems weird, doesn't it?

 

[Obryn]

For druids - There are Utility Powers to fill in these gaps. But no, a swarm druid can't just turn into a swarm of bees and fly all day, unless that's a paragon path ability I missed.

Your spirit companions can fly just fine, IIRC. They're conjurations - they aren't actual creatures. They don't need ground to stand on.

-O

 

[DEFCON 1]

It's no more weird than any other combination of mechanical rule dressed with a bit of fluff to make it sound interesting.

And I can correct you on at least one point... your swarm of bees druid can fly over a pit. You just can't do it automatically via the Fly ability... you have to roll an Athletics check using the Jump rules first. But once the mechanical part is accomplished and you succeed on that die check, however... your fluff can certainly be that your swarm of bees flies right over the pit (and not that the bees actually "jump" it).

 

[avin]

So, what if you fail the Jump check and fall?

Rolling a Jump for pretending to Fly, sorry, is the dead of Fluff, not a solution...

 

[Nifft]

So, what if you fail the Jump check and fall?

"Downdraft. Your little wings struggle, but you are just not Athletic enough to overcome the tyranny of the wind. Also, you take bonking-against-the-wall damage which just happens to scale exactly like falling damage would."

Cheers, -- N

 

[fba827]

yeah - it's that way for game mechanic balancing. that does cause a little minor mental disconnect when you think of situations like this (or changing to a monkey and wanting a better climb ability, etc).

personally, i just rationalize it to myself as 'you can change form but haven't yet mastered the new form well enough to do those special things' - so you can be a bird but the complexities of perfect motion are not yet mastered by you, so maybe you flail in the wind a little but don't really get anywhere. And then in later levels, you start to understand it better (as is evidenced by utility powers that allow you to fly for a period of time). That explaination of course won't work for everyone. but it works well enough for me.

my point is, you're right - and it's for game mechanics as you pointed out. just have to figure a way to make it work from a fluff perspective for yourself.

 

[DEFCON 1]

"Downdraft. Your little wings struggle, but you are just not Athletic enough to overcome the tyranny of the wind. Also, you take bonking-against-the-wall damage which just happens to scale exactly like falling damage would."

Cheers, -- N

Thank you Nifft... couldn't have said it better myself.

avin... this is just one of the many concessions you have to make when reconcilling the "mechanics of the game" with the "descriptions of the story". You HAVE to make some small suspensions of disbelief... both in this one specific scenario *and* in pretty much every other aspect of the game.

Why do Rangers only get to use Hunter's Quarry once per round? Shouldn't they know their enemy's anatomy all the time and thus cause them more damage on every attack? Why yes... that would make sense from a story perspective... but it doesn't work within the rules and balancing of the game. But for some reason... this particular game mechanic seems to be much easier for people to swallow than using the Athletics - Jump skill to mimic flying.

But they both amount to the same thing.